The Internet has quickly grown to become a very popular, if not the most popular, source of entertainment. A study by Parks Associates has concluded that the most popular online activity for entertainment is playing casual games. The study also notes that the year-over-year growth rate for casual gamers is 79%, making casual gaming significantly higher than the growth rate of social networking at 46%. Streaming video is, however, quickly catching up to casual gaming as one of the most popular entertainment activities with a 123% year-over-year growth.

"Despite the growing popularity of YouTube, MySpace and Facebook, gaming remains the king of online entertainment, driven largely by casual gaming activities. Gaming also has business advantages. Unlike sites for social networking and video streaming, which rely solely on advertising revenue, casual gaming has more mature and heterogeneous revenue models, including web-based and in-game advertising, try-before-you-buy, subscriptions, and micro-transactions," said James Kuai, a research analyst at Parks Associates.